DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE TUESDAY, APRIL 1, 2025, AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 14 PAGES `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 ‘SECONDARY TARIFF’ WARNING Fresh US tariff threat looms over purchase of Russian oil BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY EXPLAINED Hopes of concession on reciprocal tariffs fade as April 2 deadline nears SUKALP SHARMA & RAVI DUTTA MISHRA NEW DELHI, MARCH 31 MECHANISATION BEYOND TRACTORS EID FESTIVITIES PAGE 10 People offer prayers on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr at Jama Masjid in Ahmedabad on Monday. Express Amid BJP talks with AIADMK, Annamalai may step down as state party chief Mamata: Don’t give in to incitement... Left, BJP have become one, but I alone am enough BJP’s Tamil Nadu chief K Annamalai ARUN JANARDHANAN CHENNAI, MARCH 31 CONSIDERED one of the main reasonsbehindtheAIADMKand BJP falling apart in 2023, K Annamalai may step down as BJP Tamil Nadu president as alliance talks between the parties gatherpace.But,sayBJPsources, it won’t be as “punishment” — rather due to caste equations. Should the parties fight the 2026stateelectionstogether,the BJP does not want the face of both it and the AIADMK to be a Gounder. Like Annamalai, AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami belongs to the powerful backward community as well as the same western Kongu region (Gounders are dominant here). BJP sources said that Annamalai had been conveyed the same at a meeting he held withUnionHomeMinisterAmit Shah in Delhi, soon after Shah met Palaniswami — in the first formal steps by the BJP and AIADMK towards a reunion. The young Annamalai, whose aggressive stance on issues has given the BJP a visibility in Tamil Nadu — if not political success so far — was told that “Delhi sees a bright future for him”.Inturn,theleadershipsaid, it expected Annamalai to trust and follow the party strategy. Annamalaiisbelievedtohave expressedcompleteloyaltytothe party.“Heconveyedthathedoesn’t have any second thoughts regarding his commitment to the party, and is even ready to work as a mere cadre,” a senior BJP leader said. Another leader said: “Whether Annamalai exits from the state president’s post or not, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee at an Eid event in Kolkata on Monday. Partha Paul ATRI MITRA KOLKATA, MARCH 31 DAYS AFTER communal tension in West Bengal’s Malda district, Chief MinisterMamataBanerjee on Monday urged people not to fall for provocations that could lead to communal violence and emphasised her government's commitmenttoprotectingsocial harmony. Addressing an Eid event in Kolkata, Banerjee hit out at the BJP’s “divisive politics”, saying the Opposition party’s “ganda dharam” was against the tenets of Hinduism. The remark drew criticism from the BJP, which accused her of “weaponising religion”. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief also alleged that the Left and the BJP had united against her but said it would not matterasshewas“akela hi eksho (equal to a hundred people)”. Banerjee advised the Muslim communitynottoengagewithattempts to incite violence. “If they tell you something, remember CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 19-yr-old trainee pilot injured as plane crashes in Mehsana field THE WORLD EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE AHMEDABAD, MARCH 31 A19-YEAR-OLDtraineepilotsustained injuries after the plane she was flying crashed in the fields of Ucharpi village in MehsanadistrictlateonMonday evening. Mehsana town police have launched investigations into the incident to ascertain the cause behind the crash. According to the Mehsana town police, the incident happened around 7 pm. Police also said that the plane, Cessna 152, belonged to Blue Ray Aviation Private Limited, a private aviation firm. “A woman trainee pilot was flying the plane, which crashed duetosometechnicalissues.The woman was injured in the incident,”said a senior police officer familiar with the matter. “She was admitted to a private hospital in Mehsana city where her condition was stated to be out of danger. As the plane crashedintothefields,therewas no other casualty or injury,” said the senior police officer. “Teams of the private aviation company and the government have arrived at the spot and are investigating into the matter,” the officer added. FRANCE’S LE PEN BARRED FROM RUNNING FOR OFFICE AFTER CONVICTION ISRAEL PROPOSES NEW HOSTAGE DEAL, ORDERS EVACUATION IN RAFAH PAGE 11 E EXPLAINED ECONOMICS INDIA COULD attract additional 25 per cent to 50 per cent US tariffs over the purchase of Russian oil, with US President Donald TrumpindicatingSundayhewas upset at the progress of peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and warning of imposition of secondary tariffs on buyers of Russian oil if he felt Moscowwasblockinghisefforts to end the war in Ukraine. India may also not receive a concession on the sweeping US reciprocal tariffs set to be imposed on April 2, as Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that “all countries” would face the new tariffs. This comes even as the US and India concluded their four-day talks on Saturday to determine the contours of a trade agreement. RussiahasbeenIndia’stopoil import source during AprilDecember 2024, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. SourcesinIndia’srefiningsector indicated that more clarity was needed on what exactly the Trump has linked new tariff to peace talks on Ukraine Global prices ● may rise IF RUSSIAN OIL were to be priced out from the market, it could lead to higher global oil prices. While securing sufficient oil supplies over the medium term should not be an issue for India, higher oil prices and the loss of discounted Russian barrels, would be a setback for the country. ‘NOT JOKING’: TRUMP ON A THIRD TERM PAGE 11 US would do and whether there would be any scope for exemptions if Trump were to follow CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Yunus pitch to China: India’s N-E landlocked, Bangladesh is your gateway Bangladesh Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus, China’s President Xi Jinping. PTI SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, MARCH 31 PITCHING FOR “extension of the Chinese economy”, Bangladesh interim government’s chief advisor Professor Muhammad Yunus has said that with Northeast India “landlocked”, Dhaka is the “only guardian of the ocean for all this region”. While Yunus made these remarksduringhisfour-dayvisitto Chinalastweek(March26to29), video clips of his speech were shared by the interim governmentonitssocialmediahandles. India has not reacted to his comments so far. “Seven states of India, easternpartof India,calledsevensisters... they are landlocked country, landlocked region of India. They have no way to reach out to the ocean,” Yunus said. “We are the only guardian of the ocean for all this region. So this opens up a huge possibility. So this could be an extension of the Chinese economy. Build things, produce things, market things, bring things to China, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 IMD: Above-normal temperatures, more heatwave days this summer ANJALI MARAR BENGALURU, MARCH 31 THE INDIA Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast above-normal temperatures in most parts of the country this summer (April-June), including extended heatwave episodes that may last 10-11 days in central and eastern India, affecting Odisha,JharkhandandeastUttar Pradesh in particular. “DuringApril-June,abovenormal temperatures are likely over EXTENDED HEATWAVE 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Anomalyof heatwave duration(days) Source: IMD most parts of the country, except westpeninsularIndia,someparts ofeast-centralandeastIndia,”the IMD said in its all-India summer forecast released on Monday. IMD Director General Mryutyunjay Mohapatra said above-normal heatwave days are likely in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and northern parts of Karnataka. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Haryana folk singers vs the CM’s OSD: Lyrics hit a rough pitch PAGE 1 ANCHOR SUKHBIR SIWACH CHANDIGARH, MARCH 31 BETWEEN ‘TADKE pavei laas nahar mein (At dawn, the body will be found in the canal)’ and ‘Aankh aag te laal teri, aur asla hardam sath rhve (Your eyes are burning with fire, you are never withoutagun)’,theremaybelittle to choose. But choose the Haryana Police is doing, as its cyber wing cracks down on folk songs “pro- Singer Masoom Sharma (left) and Gajender Phogat, singer and OSD to CM Nayab Singh Saini. Facebook/Express moting violence” — which has ended up pitting the singers against one of their own, Gajender Phogat, who is now an Officer on Special Duty (OSD), Special Publicity, to Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini. Masoom Sharma, six of whose songs have been banned —themostamongallthesingers — has questioned the criteria used. A few days back, Sharma was stopped from singing one of the banned songs during a public performance in Gurgaon. Speaking to the local media, the singer, with more than 18 lakh followers on social media, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahmedabad